First impression from an early morning arrival

A group of 5 of us arrived on the same flight into Dhaka on time at 4:40 am.  Customs was very thorough, checking all documents and making sure that they matched the printed material I had.  Then it was the waiting game for our checked bags, that sadly one guy lost - no bags for him today.  

By this point it was just turning to daylight.  As we walked out of the airport we were led to a van in a parking garage, where there were two small kids asking for money while we loaded our bags.  After a bit of discussion between us we headed out for our ride to the hotel.  As we pulled out of the parking garage, I was amazed at how many people were already out on the streets.  Very old buses were transporting people to the airport district, small tuk-tuk type rides, bikes pulling carts and people walking down the main streets.  Dhaka is known for traffic overload and all that I can hear out my window is the sound of honking.

When the buses were full, people hung off the back or sat on the top.  I didn't have my camera out to capture what I saw but am sure to have more opportunities. The photo below is from the national papers website from the weekend when people were returning to Dhaka from celebrations in the countryside and, to say the least, there was not enough room!